Knitting the Rising: West Cork group recreate the GPO in wool

It's long been celebrated in song and in story but now 100 years on the Easter Rising has been commemorated in wool thanks to the efforts of a knitting group in West Cork who have knitted and crocheted a perfectly scaled replica of the GPO.

Dunmanway Knit and Natter Group meet every Friday in the local library and just before Christmas librarian, Aine O'Brien came up with the idea of knitting a replica of the GPO to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising and her call to needles was met with an enthusiastic response.

One of the group, Eileen Hurley explained that there was plenty of preparation before a ball of wool was unspooled with the knitters studying photos and books about the Francis Johnston designed building to get the correct dimensions before setting about knitting its historic facade.

“We spent a lot of time looking at wools before we got the right shades of grey to match the mountain granite and then the lighter Portland stone of the portico and the pillars and then we came up with our own stitch to give us the correct effect of the stone,” said Ms Hurley.

The group even included the detail of the clock over the door and the panes of glass in the windows as well as two knitted flags, the Tricolour and the flag of the Irish Republic with the resultant knitted replica then being stretched over a specially designed frame to recreate the GPO in wool.

“We started it in January and there was a lot of work involved with people in the group putting in a lot of hours knitting and doing crochet and embroidery to get everything correct and accurate - it was demanding but it was a very satisfying way of marking such a historic event,” said Ms Hurley.

“It was great to be involved in such an unusual project - it’s on display at the moment in Dunmanway Library and later in June, it’s going to be on display in Cork County Library HQ at County Hall so hopefully a lot of people will get a chance to see it over the coming months.”